Hair on Fire!

The Spirit blasted through Missoula the second week in October--hair on fire all over. Did you notice? Maybe not when the new bishop brought a letter from his colleagues to a bunch of us pastors. But a good hunk of you did when Nadia Bolz-Weber packed ‘em in at St. Paul Lutheran Church for the last stop of her Red State Revival Tour. And then came the No Kings March on Saturday, when 10,000 of us showed up for justice and democracy – out of a total population of 80,000. 12.5% of the city! Lordy, Lordy.

I came away from all this encouraged that I might be able to respond faithfully to the incessant assaults on human dignity and the rule of law which define our times. Here are my take-aways:

1. Clarity from most Lutheran (ELCA) bishops about what our church is called to do. “Our faith compels us to stand where Jesus stands—with and for those whom society often seeks to exclude, erase, or diminish.” On the one hand, it’s an “oh duh” sort of letter. Love your neighbor, you know. On the other, with some stars of the far right saying that empathy is weakness, we need to state the obvious.

The bishops nailed it when they took on Christian Nationalism, which “confuses the Gospel with political power, turns God into a mascot for the state, and privileges some people over others based on race, religion, or birthplace. This is not the way of Jesus.” (“A Letter from Bishops of the ELCA to the Church,” October 8, 2025.)

2. Encouragement from Nadia Bolz-Weber’s bold, loud spirit and old-timey gospel. Nadia is a misfit Lutheran pastor--known for her tattoos of the liturgical year, notable quotes (“God, please help me not be an asshole”), and gut-bustingly honest memoir Pastrix (2013), about her time as a stand-up comic and addict on the margins.

The Red State Revival Tour took her through 21 conservative states “because I want to be revived from despair and from self-righteousness….I do not want to be afraid and I do not want to be alone” (nadiabolzweber.com). So she builds community as she reframes the struggle.

One way is so basic it feels new: Remember that God’s kingdom endures forever. Empires and emperors come and go. Rome was thought to be eternal. And who remembers Quirinius? But who can forget Jesus? Our wannabe emperors will be gone, too. Keep the faith.

She also blessed being human. Naming how social media shows us all the world’s disasters all the time, and how that makes many of us frantic that we can’t fix much of anything, she told us to get clear. Get very clear about what is yours to do, and what is not yours to do. Do what is yours with passion and persistence, and trust others to do theirs the same way.

3. Finally, I took home joy and gratitude from the march. So many people and signs and patriotism and peace busting out all over. What a wonder is this dear, quirky, diverse Missoula community!

This is the Spirit’s work – all of it. From very Lutheran to edgy Christian to people of every description imaginable: the Spirit fires up hope and strength. We’ll need it, for there remains much suffering and hard work. But we are so clearly not alone. And since the Spirit is always bringing life out of death, there’s gotta be a resurrection ahead.